Friday, September 18, 2015

“Guess you never expected a Dutch
singer/songwriter to write and record an album based on stories from
Middleborough”. Frankly I would have said no to such a suggestion, but that was
precisely the line that greeted me in last Friday morning’s email. Inspired by
articles about Middleborough history posted on Recollecting Nemasket, Dutch independent
singer-songwriter Wouter Broekman has released two songs, “101 in the Shade”
and “Cranberry Swamp”, as a double A-side single and is currently at work
completing a fourth album based upon historical Middleborough material.

While the international appeal of
Middleborough history seems at first remarkable, that Broekman has chosen to
draw upon Middleborough history is unsurprising in the final analysis. Both
historians and songwriters share a common desire to tell stories. And while
local history is often perceived as narrow and very specific in regard to
geographical location, like history in general it is about documenting and
understanding the human condition over time. Localization of history simply
makes the themes it explores more accessible, immediate and relatable to local
audiences who can understand them better because they know the people and
places involved. In the end these themes remain universal and transcend
locality, having a potential appeal to a global community as demonstrated by
Broekman.

“101 in the Shade” draws its inspiration
from a Recollecting Nemasket post regarding the summer of 1911 when one of the
worst heatwaves and extended droughts in Middleborough’s history was recorded.
The song’s title is taken from an item in the Middleboro Gazette that reported July 3 as the hottest day for many
years with the temperature hitting “101 in the shade at the postoffice at
noon.”

In it Broekman writes:

Cause it’s
close to 101 in the shade
The rising heat sets fire to the fallen hay
101 in the shade
Get off the land, this ain’t no workin’ day

The second track on the single, “Cranberry
Swamp” takes it lyrics from a poem simply
entitled "Cranberry" that was originally published in the mid-19th
century at a time when commercial cranberrying was in its infancy. It was
republished by Recollecting Nemasket in 2009 where Broekman discovered it. As
alluded to in the poem by the unknown author, children were involved in
harvesting the berry and some local schools like that at South Middleborough
were closed in September in order to free the children to work on the bogs or,
as they were known in mid-19th century parlance, "swamps".

In Autumn, when weather is cool,

We'll join in a holiday romp;

Away from the school we will hie,

Away to the Cranberry swamp.

The Strawberry, Raspberry too,

And Blackberry, quickly gone;

The Blueberry cannot endure

When frost and the snow come on.

But Cranberries where they are grown,

Or put into family store,

Care nothing how cold it may be,

And last till the winter is o'er.

They last till the Strawberries spring

All lonely and ripe from the sod,

And berries thus circle the year

With proofs of the goodness of God.

To accompany
the poem, Broekman has written a distinctly American-feeling folk tune that is
beautiful in its simplicity and ideally suited to the lyric.

Both songs are part of Broekman’s current
project, “A Life in Song”, a CD of American folk-style songs drawn from
Middleborough history. Broekman explained the origins of his lyrical
inspiration in an email to me:“Some
time ago I stumbled upon the story of 6-year old Wallace Spooner, who died
after jumping out of a window of Ocean House on the banks of the mill pond on
Wareham Street - as featured on your blog. The story inspired me so much that I
am currently writing and recording an Americana-style CD around this fact. The
songs of the album tell the -partly fictitious/partly true- story of the
Spooner family. I am incorporating several historic events from Middleborough,
such as the burning down of the Alden shoe factory, the hottest day in years, the
Cranberry Poem and more. I have written a song about the demolition of Ocean
House as well.”

The Ocean House was a ramshackle building
located on the west shore of the mill pond at Wareham Street, its name a
possibly satiric barb aimed at luxury hotels which were then in vogue at the
seaside. For local Middleborough children without means, this was their ocean-side
alternative. The Ocean House proved popular with neighborhood children who
would dive from its open windows into the mill pond below. This activity ended,
however, following the tragic 1905 death of six year old Wallace Spooner who
while engaged in diving from the building struck his head upon a stone wall,
fell into the river and drowned. Nothing, however, was done with the property until
1908 when the Middleborough Board of Health condemned the structure which was
demolished two years later in spring of 1910.
Broekman currently performs regularly in the Netherlands and always includes both “101 in the Shade” and
“Cranberry Swamp” in his set, along with others he has written but yet to record.
He describes his songs as having "clear influences of folk, country and Americana with a contemporary singer/songwriter sauce.... The acoustic guitar is my main support."
Both songs may be heard on Bandcamp and Broekman's own site.

ABOUT RECOLLECTING NEMASKET

Recollecting Nemasket is a web log about the history of Middleborough and Lakeville, Massachusetts. In addition to publishing local history articles, Recollecting Nemasket seeks to be an interactive educational resource for community history by providing links to historical information and sources, and by soliciting input from readers in the form of recollections, photographs and other images.

Please feel free to comment upon the articles, to record your recollections or to contact me with any stories or images you might wish to share with others.

If you wish to use images or text from this site, please include a link or credit to Recollecting Nemasket.

History Relevance Campaign

LOCATING NEMASKET

Middleborough and Lakeville are situated at the heart of southeastern Massachusetts as shown on H. F. Walling's 1871 map of the Commonwealth

Contact Me

Discover Middleborough Magazine

Recollecting Nemasket was honored to be able to contribute to the inaugural edition of Middleborough's new digital magazine which features hsitoric Titicut.

The Famous Trotting Ground: A History of Middleborough's Fall Brook Driving Park

Nemasket River Herring: A History

Representatives of the Great Cause

Star Mill: History & Architecture

South Middleborough: A History

New Pictorial History of Middleborough

Available from local and on-line booksellers.

Lakeville's King Philip Tavern

Lakeville's Native "Princesses"

Wootonekanuske and Teweeleema, more familiarly known as Charlotte and Melinda Mitchell, were the last descendants of Massasoit and lived at Betty's Neck in Lakeville.

New England Cranberry Sales Company

Formed in 1907 as the first cranberry growers' cooperative in Massachusetts, the New England Cranberry Sales Company was headquartered at Everett Square in Middleborough. In 1954, it merged with Ocean Spray.

Ebenezer W. Peirce, "History of Middleboro'" in D. Hamilton Hurd. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia, PA: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1884.

Ebenezer W. Peirce, "History of Lakeville" in D. Hamilton Hurd. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia, PA: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1884.

Gladys Vigers. History of the Town of Lakeville, Massachusetts. Lakeville, MA: Town of Lakeville, 1952.

Phyllis Elliott Draghetti and D. Evelyn Sylvia Norris. History of the Town of Lakeville: The Next Twenty-Five years 1953-1978. Lakeville, MA: Town of Lakeville, 1978.

William Hubbard. The History of the Indian Wars in New England from the First Settlement to the Termination of the War with King Philip, in 1677. Roxbury, MA: Samuel G. Drake, 1865. Volume 1. Volume 2.